Review of Oshkosh, Wisconsin

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best places to live

- 2/25/2010
I agree with all the negative they have said about Oshkosh. Residents dont notice the negative until they leave for a while LOL.
I am back only because my wife's family is here but its horribly cold here and I cannot see how this town ever made it to 50,000 much less 60,000 people.
The lakes are nice when you are not attacked by mosquitoes or made filthy by lake flies. The property taxes are so high that if you decide on lake front property you better be as rich as Brett Farve. The government unions have a stranglehold on the community and the services aren't worth the high taxes. All the residence are doing is bank rolling the college and government officials high wages. The water is bad has arsenic the rivers are polluted from 150 years of dumping by the local mills. The prime waterfront they brag about lake Winnebago is a shallow lake and is more like a swamp in many places and between lake fly's and and muddy bottoms doesn't seem worth paying the high property taxes. If you a drunk no problem there are over 100 taverns in this town.
There community redevelopment has stolen a lot of good quality industrial real estate close to the water to spend more tax dollars using the ever evil eminent domain as a right to take it. They have reduced the amount of good usable industrial land that could be incubators for new manufacturing jobs and start ups. Instead they are building condos that will never get sold and have given more tax money to fund projects that are not economically viable. This city has done more to mess it self up over the last 30 years then some but not as bad as Detroit I guess. I think Michigan being as bad as it is will soon be followed by Wisconsin particularly the Fox cities. The socialist trends in this area will probably destroy investment in general. The exception may be a few large industries that are oligopolies that can withstand the government abuse that Oshkosh and Eastern Wi has put on the private sector. If these industries leave for cheaper less taxing geographic regions its over for Oshkosh and the Fox cities! On a scale of 1 to 10 I give Oshkosh a rating of a 3 for cities under 100,000 people. PS if you need great schools then ignore this post and move here we do have good schools.
david | Oshkosh, WI